Editing Guideline:Sign your posts on talk pages

== The purpose of signatures on Wikipedia ==

Signatures on Wikipedia identify you as a user, and your contributions to Wikipedia.  They encourage [[WP:CIVIL|civility in discussions]] by identifying the author of a particular comment, and the date and time at which it was made.

==When signatures should be used==

Any post made to user talk pages, article talk pages, or other discussion pages should be signed.  Edits to articles should ''not'' be signed, as signatures on Wikipedia are not intended to indicate ownership or authorship of any Wikipedia article.  In other instances when posts should not be signed, specific instructions are provided to contributors.

== How to "sign" your posts ==

There are two ways to sign your posts:

1.  At the end of your comments, simply type four tildes (~), like this:  <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>. 

2.  If you are using the [[Help:Edit toolbar|edit toolbar]] option (which must be enabled under [[Special:Preferences]]), click the signature icon ([[Image:Signature_icon.png]]) to add the four tildes.

Your signature will appear after you have saved the changes.

The end result is the same in both cases.  Typing four tildes will result in the following:

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! Wikimarkup !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
| <center><code><nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></code></center>
| <code><nowiki>[[User:Example|Example]]</nowiki> {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)</code>
| [[User:Example|Example]] {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)
|}

Since typing four tildes adds the time and date to your resulting signature, this is the preferred option for signing your posts in discussions.

Typing three tildes results in the following:

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! Wikimarkup !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>~~~</nowiki></code></center>
|<code><nowiki>[[User:Example|Example]]</nowiki></code>
| [[User:Example|Example]]
|}

Since this does not date-stamp your signature, you may wish to sign this way when leaving general notices on your user page or user talk page.  This is also a convenient shortcut (rather than typing out the full code) when you want to provide a link to your user page.

Typing five tildes will convert to a date stamp with the current date and time, without adding your signature, like this:

{| class="prettytable" cellpadding="5" border="1"
! Wikimarkup !! Resulting code !! Resulting display
|-
|<center><code><nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki></code></center>
| <code>{{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)</code>
| {{CURRENTTIME}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} (UTC)
|}

Note that if you choose to contribute to Wikipedia without [[Wikipedia:How to log in|logging in]], you should still sign your posts.  In this case, your [[IP address]] will take the place of your username. 

Your IP address might look something like this:  '''192.0.2.58'''.  Some users prefer to use their IP address instead of a user name because they think that an IP provides them with more anonymity.  In fact, a [[pseudonymous]] [[Wikipedia:Why create an account?|account]] (that is, a registered user name) actually provides you with '''''more''''' protection of your identity.  

Note also that signing manually with a pseudonym or tag such as ''--anon'' does not give you more anonymity or privacy protection, since your IP address will still be stored in the page history.  This also makes it more difficult for other users to communicate with you.  If you choose to sign this way, you should still type four tildes: ''--anon'' <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>.

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